


Driving Goals and Sidetracks

by Merfilly



Series: Walk a Different Road [17]
Category: Transformers (Bay Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-07
Updated: 2013-01-09
Packaged: 2017-11-24 02:27:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/629274
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The debate of how fast to push the Hatchlings is on the table, complicated when they prove to be slightly precocious.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Many pairings, including non-monogamous and xenophiliac ones exist in the overall series, but this is possibly the most gen section yet. Hence the lack of relationships listed in tags.

Ratchet was of an opinion that there had to be some universe where it was not possible for two beings as stubborn as Starscream and Mikaela to be in collusion with one another. He desperately wanted to be in that universe currently, as he participated in the face off between himself, Mirage, and Jazz against the pair.

"We are still at war, and Megatron will try to regain them at some point, as you well know, Starscream." Mirage was trying to be the reasonable one, but his autocratic tones came across as demanding and accusative.

"And the war is also winding down!" Starscream snapped back at him, barely stopping himself from calling Mirage 'traitor', never mind the situation he was currently in. "If they are rushed in their development, we'll wind up with another batch of addled-processors!"

"Ratchet, taking time with their development gives them far longer to actually process the terran elements that are supplementing their systems, make it more a part of their natural being," Mikaela added. "If we rush, they could develop short-circuits, flimsy wiring, even brittle casing for their armor! We can't rush them!"

"Mikaela, stop and think for a second. You're asking us to leave them dependent on us for weapons and shields, on the say so of a 'Con who would just love to keep us from having thirteen more warriors to add to our ranks," Jazz pointed out.

Mikaela had whirled to face him even before Starscream could take umbrage. "He's their creator first! And the whole thing of Megatron fostering them with us for his own miserable hide was so they'd eat our resources! So LET them! For as long as it takes, because it just might be buying us time!" she snapped.

"Oh, I do like a feisty femme," Starscream chuckled, deciding to leave it in her court for this fight.

"Shut up, Star," she muttered at him.

"I'm trying to see both sides here," Ratchet said firmly. "But the idea of leaving them so unprotected is hitting hard against the past."

All the mechs, Starscream included, knew that the creations who had been deemed too far behind, too heavy a resource drain, had either been put in stasis... or worse at various points in the early war. Mikaela, who had studied the history of her adopted people, nodded.

"The past is part of the reason I say you need to go slow," she told them all. "How can any of you expect to move on from the war into anything like peace, if you continue to make nothing but warriors out of your young? Starscream and Ratchet, you both have looked at the coding available for fresh creation. You both agreed that even this batch of hatchlings would have been at risk, had it not been for the Fallen's code being so primal and close to base code options. How can you risk losing their fresh code possibilities by rushing their maturity?"

"I still believe the risk to their survival is too great to allow them a lengthy development period," Mirage said.

"I move the risks and benefits be explained to Prime, and allow him to decide it," Starscream answered that. Mikaela cut him a sharp look; this had been intended to avoid giving Prime any more stress, but she could tell the other side was not convinced at all, not even Jazz.

"I'll agree to that. Starscream will state his side, and Ratchet will state the other," Jazz said. "Until then, we let development proceed at its own rate."

Mikaela would have to let that stand, and she walked out, Starscream following her.

"Is it merely sentiment clouding your view of them as 'children'?" the Seeker asked, watching as Sparky swooped down from a rooftop to cling to the human, his latest molt making him seem almost like a winged backpack on her.

She reached up and rubbed a spatial sensor gently on her ward, looking up at Starscream. "No. I get that they are fully capable of being forced to maturity, that your systems of logic and reasoning are far in advance of a young human being. I just don't think pushing the first surviving batch of hatchlings that hard is in the interest of your species' viability."

Starscream regarded her a long moment, then nodded once, sharply, before going to find Prime. His processor was ticking over probabilities and statistics, while also weighing his original intentions behind joining Megatron's war.

`~`~`~`~`

Mikaela was with the brood, carefully removing the bits of sand and seaweed when the alarm went off. They all froze in place, then Sparky whirred a command... and Mikaela saw a flurry of motion that ended with Sparky, two others, and two mech-sized creations that were the product of each of the other ten hatchlings.

"Sparky?" Mikaela asked, adding the rest of her own armor quickly.

"Keep safe." The two words were voiced reluctantly as he still preferred using his brood-language, but Mikaela needed to understand him.

"Okay then." She hoped, fervently, they didn't need to test these new abilities the brood had manifested, even as the three individuals ringed her in, Sparky taking the lead. She felt their individual electrical fields sharpen, intensify, and overlap one another, keeping her safe inside, as small ports opened, showing size-appropriate weapons.

Ironhide and Sideswipe were going to just love this, she thought. Still, she would _not_ let them be rushed into training.

Outside, there was definitely battle, and one of the combined mech-forms started to move forward, but Sparky gave a sharp burst of noise, and it held in place. Mikaela powered up her rifle, listening to the whine of it, keeping her eyes on the door as the hatchlings quivered with anticipation.

When a heavy, loud thud on the asphalt outside the hatchling den startled them all, Sparky was the one who chittered, and his wingmates (Mikaela was going to have words with Starscream over this trio thing) went up high to look out. At whatever they passed silently back, the two combiner teams moved to where they had the door at the apex of a triangle, Sparky stood right in front of Mikaela, and the two up high targeted from the rafters.

Whomever, or whatever, the armored war machine that came in the door was, stood no chance as the hatchlings unleashed a violent, very unchecked mass of destruction on it. Mikaela saw the smoldering wreck... and then noted how the combiners wavered before falling into piles of hatchlings. All of them were spent, and she reached out to Sparky.

"Recharge now," her ward promised, as the trio started cycling their energies, trying to build up enough energy to hold the fort should anything else come in.

Mikaela started to move forward, to check the smoldering wreck, but Sparky gave such a noise she stayed put... and then she felt the distinct presence of Starscream near the building. His fields connected with her in ways that itched the back of her skull, unlike the Autobots, yet she had to trust in his protective instincts concerning his creations. His pride would not stand for them being removed from his care ever again.

`~`~`~`~`

The battle had been short, but devastating. Ratchet would have his hands full with repairs, so it was Sideswipe who was sent to check on the hatchlings, to find Starscream carefully picking them up and putting them in the central berth.

"Mik... Ratch needs ya if the little butts don't," Sideswipe said after managing a energy count... all thirteen, though low.

"On my way." She looked up at Starscream as he helped unwind Sparky from her body. "You're certain that was a rogue element?"

"I recognized Jhiaxus," he sniffed. "Cravenly thing who tested my authority frequently."

"Alright. Just... give them …"

"Don't tell me how to care for them, miserable fleshling!" Starscream snapped, before scooting her out the door. She had to laugh; the insults were part and parcel of dealing with him.

"What happened? Didn't think Que's gun packed that kind of punch," Sideswipe said, looking at the twisted, molten metal they had to pass to get out of the hatchling quarters.

"Sparky's crew did that. Took all they had, but … well, I think 'Scream and I win the argument that they get to go slow, if they can do that as a group," she said, not without some pride in her charges.

Sideswipe let out a low whistle, and just escorted her over to medical.


	2. Coda

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Optimus worries over her

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written at the request of Dellessana

Optimus, having been told of the fight's outcome at the hatchling's building, could barely wait to have his consort back in his sight, and preferably his hands. Still, he was Prime, and his people needed him, much as Ratchet required his student's assistance in repairs.

When the day was finally over, in the wee hours of the morning, it was Ratchet who brought Mikaela to him, carried carefully in both hands, as the human was already exhausted. Receiving her from the medic, Optimus carried her inside their sleeping area, trying not to disturb her as he settled on the berth. Jazz was not there, having decided to do a little intel gathering, so they had the berth to themselves.

"You're worrying again," Mikaela murmured, not even bothering to open her eyes.

"How can I not?" Optimus rumbled, settling her on his chestplates and reaching for her downy quilt to wrap her in.

"Well, it goes both ways." She kissed the seam of his chest, then accepted her quilt to settle for sleep right where she was.

Optimus, however, remained online, watching her sleep.


End file.
